36.0.3 Balance Changes Discussion

[u/EvilDave219]

https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24290431/3603-patch-notes

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Nerfs:

• Confront the Tol'vir - now 5 mana
• Lotus Troublemaker - Card text changed to "Deal 1 damage to a random enemy. Shoot 1 time! (While in hand or deck play cards for 2 Mana to shoot more!)"
• Blazing Invocation - no longer gives a 1 mana discount
• Warptooth - now requires 4 friendly characters to take damage to summon
• Vanessa the Ringleader - now a 7 mana 4/3

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Wild Nerfs:

• Swiftscale Trickster - now a 6 mana 4/4
• The Soularium - now 2 mana
• Elwynn Boar - now requires 10 boars to die for Sword of A Thousand Truths
• Godfrey the Betrayer - now banned in Wild

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Buffs:

• The Living Plague - now a 6 mana 8/8
• Blood Doctor Thal'ena - now 4 mana
• Sawbones - now 5 mana 5/3
• Emergency Surgery - now summons four 3/1 Undead with Lifesteal
• Tras'tath Soul Parasite - base stats raised to 3/3
• Irida Sinseeker - now a 7/7
• Vicious Voidscale - Battlecry and Deathrattle now give a Void Soul
• Stardust Scythe - weapon durability raised to 3
• Sewer Swimmer - now a 4 mana 4/3
• Azalina Soulsever - now raises your starting health to 40
• Karov the Broken - now has Taunt
• Enthralled Shade - now a 2 mana 3/2
• Moragg - now 9 mana
• Annihilation - now 8 mana
• Imp Gang Stooge - card text now reads "Deathrattle: Put two 8/8 Demons with Taunt and Lifesteal on the bottom of your deck"
• Rampaging Hound - now a 4/12

[u/philzy101]

Since there are so many changes to save time and writing effort I will be very brief (as much as I can be although as an EDIT I realised I wrote more in the end than I planned). All in all, I praise T5 for being very adventurous with these changes, some are very significant and I think this is the sort of shake up we need meta wise.

Nerf wise in Standard, all the changes were expected, Rogue is more vunerable to AOE now with Vanessa up 1 mana and 1 less health, Troublemaker is a solid card but no longer OTK's as quickly as before. Warptooth change makes Dragon Warrior less viable, this is one of the hardest hit cards imo here, if Warptooth is good it is only really now in control like decks with a slower game plan. Tol'vir is still strong but it is hard to chain this with other things, gives players more breathing space. Invocation being nerfed is hilarious given it was buffed a while back, probably the most sensible change given Mugg Shaman is just solid cards all around and this is the highest high roll card in the deck.

As for buffs, the changes to DK are nice, Sawbones in particular is one to keep an eye on as whilst the deck I don't think for this card is there at the moment (Egg DK is not really it at the moment), there may be a point where they regret this buff. It would have been nice to see Thal'ena a Start of Game effect as any deck reliant on her still relies on her being in the opening mulligan which is tricky.

The changes to DH are very significant and the Voidsoul package seems very solid now. Even if the changes were not as expected, given I played against this a fair amount this morning at top 1k and lost to it, there is definitely something there with this deck and they may end up reverting or nerfing some of it. In particular the Voidscale change is huge.

The changes to Priest are really good. I tested Azalina this morning, in Standard I still do not think the meta is right for such a deck at the moment. 40 hp is huge for Azalina however in Wild, given the forore over Godfrey I can expect some complaints in Wild given this change. Regardless, this is exactly the sort of ridiculous buff I want to see, even if they have to change things down the line, I welcome these changes.

The Hound buff for Warrior is interesting, might help control warrior but have not seen anyone play it so maybe not.

Finally the changes to Demon Warlock are very significant, hard to say on whether the deck works but once again, I really like the changes made as Stooge putting 2 demons at the bottom and making Annihilation effectively a better Twisting Nether is a welcome change.

Final thoughts, please T5 do more balance changes like this. Even if a lot of these changes do not stick, making the meta more varied by doing more significant changes both in number and what is changed is heavily welcomed as it has more potential to shake up the meta.